fur will fly

By ( articles ) | Aug 13, 2008

Italian animal-rights activists are urging Pope Benedict to stop wearing fur. Hmmm.

Somehow I doubt that the fur vestments are in heavy use during the month of August. And somehow I doubt that Vatican tailors are actively hunting animals today to add pelts to the papal collection. Yet there's a much richer absurdity in the activists' plea:

But the petition appealed not to the pope's fashion sense, but to his reputation as an animal lover, which has even prompted an authorized biography of the pope narrated by a cat.

If I understand them correctly, then, the activists think that being a cat-lover is incompatible with the use of animal skins for clothing.

Tell that to the neighborhood cat, the next time he proudly presents you with the bloody carcass of a squirrel.